I used the years for the base (if there's ever ordered numbers, I almost always use them for the base).

The specialty only matters when it overlaps, so it's not important to keep track of who has what specialty, but rather who shares the specialties (I don't think you'd be able to integrate this into the diagram easily, anyway, because it doesn't really tell you what the specialties are).

Hope this helps!

And just for reference, this is my favorite game of all time. There are only three possibilities once you get the deductions worked out.

Yep, this is true right here. It's a basic ordering game, and all you have to do is keep track of who can't be in the same year/can't be next to each other. After that the game is extremely limited.

Professors hired in the same or consecutive years do not have a specialty in common.From this little tidbit, we know that two or more professors can be hired in the same year so long as they do not share a specialty with each other.

We are given that M is hired in 93, R in 91. M,O,T all have one specialty in common. So we know that O and T cannot be hired in 92, 93 or 94.N shares a specialty with R so we know that N cannot be hired in either 90, 91, or 92. We are then given that P and S were each hired at least one year before M and at least one year after N. From our previous not laws, we can deduce that N must have been hired in 89 with P and S both being hired somewhere from 90 to 92. The last piece of information we are given is that O is hired in 90 and shares a specialty with S, so S cannot be hired in either 89, 90, or 91.

Here's the diagram. If you need help with the questions let me know.

ETA: Scooped, with a better diagram...my diagrams are usually poor because I am very good at LG.

Last edited by mindarmed on Mon Jul 23, 2012 4:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.